“You are spending a lot of time developing teaching materials. Your aim is to make the lessons enjoyable and to engage students in the classroom. Each student needs their individual, personalised report. This means that you will have less time for 10 pages of professional development. Which if you don’t do you don’t get a pay rise,” she said.
Tsang claimed that senior staff told her they heard of schools manipulating the teaching performance results in order to receive the best funding.
“I really don’t like the NAPLAN system. Apparently some schools when they’re doing well, they try to not do so well, in order to get more funding. Then they get funding again. And then they get funding.”
She kept her parting words in her head for weeks, even after she finally met with the principal two years ago.
Reese Tsang left teaching to study architecture: “I love teaching when it is all about the students, but if I stay I probably would lose my love for teaching,”Credit:Justin McManus
“If I choose to do the right thing, which is to dedicate more time to focus on students not paperwork, I’ll be punished [by the system] With the reduction in funding. I love teaching when it is all about the students, but if I stay I probably would lose my love for teaching,” Tsang said.
Another teacher, who requested anonymity because she is still in education, worked more than 10 years in Queensland and Victorian public system before retiring from teaching after some coaching by Alchin.
“I literally had no idea what else I could do. I have been a teacher for over 10 years. I was looking at jobs that were advertised thinking ‘how does my experience translate [to] that?’” she said.
She is currently a teacher and claims she will never return to teaching. She worked up to 70 hours per week during report time, which was 50 hours per week.
“If you go on school camp, you are working for four days straight. Then you come back to school, you don’t get to take that as time in lieu, you don’t get to have a day off unless you use sick leave. You just worked 24 hours straight almost.”
“I really loved working with young people. It makes me sad that someone like me, who really has a passion like that, that has had to leave because the workload is untenable.”
She stated that the administrative burden had increased exponentially over the last eight years. The number of students with complex mental health issues has increased, but there has been no decrease in class size.
“Schools are just chronically underfunded. Your classes are too big, the burden of what you’re supposed to be teaching, balanced with the fact that you’re dealing with really significant behaviour issues. It’s overwhelming.”
Another NSW teacher is returning to work after a time-off to start her own family. Because she might have to return to teaching, she requested anonymity.
“I have the option to go back to a high school and work casually but why would I do that to myself?” she said.
After teaching high school in Sydney for eight years, it’s been five years since she last taught in a classroom. She believes that teaching at university doesn’t give her the necessary tools for managing classrooms.
“The reality is you walk into a classroom of 30 kids with behavioural problems. It is so full on,” she said.
Teachers are responsible for planning their own curriculum.
“A beginning teacher goes out and not one teacher in a department will share a program. You’re spending all your time writing the materials and organising it. You must get on the ground. Literally, type up and source your own material for every single lesson.”
Recently, the NSW government announced that teachers will receive curriculum lesson plans, text and learning materials. This is in an attempt to reduce the workload of teachers who are struggling to find the time to prepare classes.
Recent research by the Grattan Institute revealed 88 per cent of teachers said having access to common units and assessment materials could save three hours each week and avoid having to “re-invent the wheel” by trawling the internet and come up with lesson plans.
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But for many it’s too little, too late. Slepoy-Azimov says she is dealing with teachers who want out but don’t know how their skills will translate to other industries.
They assist with creating resumes, conducting mock interviews, setting-up LinkedIn profiles, and setting them on short courses to learn program management.
“Especially teachers that have been in the same job for, say, 20 years, they don’t know how to do [all] that,” Slepoy-Azimov says.
“It could be something really minor as like just [Microsoft] Excel, that they haven’t used Excel, they need to learn Excel, and that’s easy to do the course.”
Alchin stated that the main problem for many people when changing careers is not being aware of all the options.
“The reality is, there’s millions and millions of different jobs out there and more coming every day. There’s a very low unemployment rate right now. Realistically, there are plenty of jobs. It’s all about finding how you can meet that industry’s needs.”
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